Florida State Hangs On Against Notre Dame, Gets Second ACC Win

The Seminoles battle back and take down the Fighting Irish in the Tuck.

It wasn't looking good there for a little bit in the first half. Notre Dame opened up an 11-point lead midway through the first half, but Florida State stayed locked in, fought back, and it ended up being a very back-and-forth game but FSU would hang on in the end. It was a hard-fought effort that pays off with a 2-1 ACC start, and Notre Dame staying winless in Tallahassee, and the home team continues to dominate this series. 

READ MORE: Early Signing Period Tracker for the Florida State Seminoles

This was a very strange statistical game, as we'll get into in a second, but it was yet another FSU/Notre Dame game that came down to the wire with this being the second of the last three games in Tallahassee to finish as a 1-point margin. Matthew Cleveland was superb again, and Cameron Corhen was phenomenal with Naheem McLeod not playing in this one. Let's get into some stats.

I love the scoring balance from Florida State's starters. Three players had 18+ points, with Matthew Cleveland achieving a third straight double/double (first time since 1995 that's been done by an FSU player) with 19 points and 13 rebounds and 3 made threes, Caleb Mills with a smooth 18 points on 13 shots, and Cameron Corhen with a strong 18 points and 7 rebounds. Darin Green was cold in this game but still had 8 points, and Jalen Warley had his best game of the season (at least in my opinion) with 9 points and 5 assists. There was a massive difference anytime Warley wasn't on the floor and you could feel it. 

This was the second straight game in which an FSU player set a career high in points, as Corhen's 18 was the most he's had in his young career. He was simply superb tonight. He missed a couple easy ones early, but he was consistently going through Notre Dame post defenders with strong finishes, and the most impressive part was he had just 1 foul in 31 minutes. For his style of play, that's extremely impressive given his youth. He's going to be really good and I can't wait to see how he continues to develop. 

Notre Dame came into this game with the worst opposing free throw percentage in the country at 78%, something they have no control over. FSU shot 12/14 (86%) on free throws tonight to make that number rise even more. It's such a weird stat, but it's clearly having an effect on the outcome of their games. And I also said FSU had to keep Notre Dame from having double digit free throw attempts, and they had just 9. They did a great job of defending without fouling, which was clear when they only had 4 fouls in the second half. 

For Notre Dame, JJ Starling had one of his best games of the season with 20 points on 7/11 shooting, and was single-handedly keeping the Irish in the game down the stretch. He was hitting logo threes, tough finishes in transition, and had the last 6 points of the game down the stretch to get them back in the game and give them a fighting chance. 

Nate Laszewski dealt with foul trouble but still finished with 12 points, Cormac Ryan had 17 points, and Dane Goodwin had just 2 points in this game, which is a big reason FSU won this game, as he didn't score until there were about 7 minutes left in the game. 

FSU has some time off before hitting the road to play Duke on New Year's Eve. It should be a motivated Blue Devils team who is coming off of a double-digit loss.

READ MORE: Virginia DB transfer Fentrell Cypress II can see himself at Florida State following Official Visit

Stick with NoleGameday for more coverage of Florida State basketball throughout the season

Follow NoleGameday on Twitter and Facebook